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I love baking cakes with fruits.

I have posted my favourite recipes for Blueberry-Lemon Cake and Apple-Cinnamon
Cake. Now on to this Sicilian Orange Cake which is the best orange cake I have tasted so
far. This verdict is further confirmed by all my friends who have tasted it.

This Sicilian Orange Cake is the famous orange cake from the once popular Café
Agostini (this cafe has closed on 22 July, 2005) owned by Margie Agostini, in the heart
of Sydney ¶s suburb for the rich and famous, Woollahra. Customers have often been
heard to say that ³Margie¶s orange cake is to die for´.

I found this recipe on Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escape Cookbook a while ago but was
surprised to find out how this recipe was linked to Australia:

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(Adapted from Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escape)
Makes 1 x 22-cm cake, to serve about 8

  
250 g lightly salted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
250 g caster sugar
4 medium eggs
1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest
250 g self raising flour
85 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
A
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125 g icing sugar
5 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice
Π

1.Y Vreheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 22-cm clip-sided round cake with
non-stick baking paper.
2.Y Using an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together for 4-5 minutes until
very pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating very well between each one, if
necessary adding a spoonful of flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from
curdling. Beat in the orange zest. Add the flour all at once and mix in well, then
slowly mix in the orange juice.
3.Y Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven
for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes
out clean. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover loosely with a sheet of lightly
buttered foil.
4.Y Leave the cake, in its tin, to cool on a wire rack, then carefully remove the sides
and base of the tin and peel off the paper. Vut it onto a serving plate.
 5.Y For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the orange juice until you
have a spreadable consistency. Spread it over the top of the cake, letting it drip
down the sides, and leave to set. Serve cut into slices, and store any leftovers in
an airtight container.

mY Flourless Orange and almond cake



Y
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Unlike Paris, where your foot may land in a little souvenir from a spoilt pooch, in Seville it is more likely that you
will inadvertently juice an orange under your sole. The streets are splattered with crushed oranges at this time of
year, yet the beautifully pruned orange trees of the city are still baubled with fruits among the greenery.

But why is it that nobody shimmies up the trunk to grab a thirst-quenching orange on a warm day? Because they are
Seville oranges, thick-skinned and bitter; good for that waste-not-want-not British pastime of marmalade-making.
The ³other´ Spanish orange, the navel, is the one that is piled high at market stalls, eaten on the buses, sliced into
salads of onions and olives, squeezed over grilled tuna and pressed into frothy, tangy juices.

I came home warmed by the sun, my tastebuds craving more oranges. The flourless orange-and-almond cake is one
of the finest forms for an orange, so I set to making this half cake-half pudding within a day of getting back.

The recipe here is based on the Sephardic orange-and-almond cake in Claudia Roden¶s incomparable A New Book of
Middle Eastern Food. My contribution is to separate the eggs, making a cake that is lighter and less dense than the
original, but as rich, moist and fragrant.


 


15 min
 
2½ hr

 

"erve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt or rich cream.

6 medium oranges
6 eggs, separated
225g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder

Œ

Place the clean, whole and unpeeled fruit in water to cover, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 1½ hours
or until soft, adding more water when necessary. Drain the oranges, cut into quarters, discard any major pips, and
whiz the rest, including peel, in the food-processor, then cool. Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat the egg yolks and
sugar together in a large bowl until pale. Beat in the oranges, almonds, and baking powder. Beat the egg whites until
softly peaky and fold gently into the mixture.

Pour into a 26cm (9in) springform cake tin and bake for an hour, until firm to the touch (cover with a loose sheet of
foil if over-browning). Cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar to serve. Y